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The summary of Chassis and

Suspension design
Chapter 1 History of chassis:
The purpose of a motor car chassis is to connect all four wheels with a
structure which is rigid in bending and torsion (will not sag or twist). It
must be capable of supporting all components and occupants and should
absorb all loads fed into it without deflecting unduly.
A chassis is only a mean to an end.
In descending order of magnitude the major loads involved are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

Rear suspension and final drive


Front suspension and steering
Engine and gearbox
Fuel tank
Seats and occupants ,steering column ,pedals and other controls
Radiator
Battery
Spare wheel

Chapter2 The main types of chassis:


The space frame is the most efficient type of chassis which it is possible to
build in limited production. The best example of space frame chassis from
the point of view of rigidity would be a square section rectangular box,
with ends, sides, top and bottom triangulated by diagonals running from
one corner through centre to the opposite corner .this would be the
lightest, stiffest, simplest and cheapest type of chassis, but at the same
time it would be entirely impractical for automotive applications.
Particularly from the point of view of accessibility.
In the course of design. Each panel or bay of unitary construction chassis
must be stabilised to carry out the function of transferring loads. The
simplest way to achieve this would be to use a large round section tube
with the ends blanked off
However the best design is the one which departs least from the ideal and
as round section chassis body cannot be considered practical the best
compromise would seem to be a square section layout with large radius
corners
Any operation on a tube such as tapering it or cutting holes in it, must
have adverse effects on it structurally. With flexing holes crossing load
paths change their shape since there must be holes despite the reduction
on frames and bulkheads to stabilise the surrounding areas

The load capacity of a unitary construction chassis in bending should be


extremely good because bending loads are resolved into pure tension and
compression in the undertray and roof, to which type of loads these areas
are ideally suited. Such a chassis should also be very good from the
torsional point of view but in practise everything depends on the torsional
point of view. This is particularly true in the case of and open car which
lacks the diagonal bracing the diagonal bracing provided in a closed car
by the roof. Even here, however with careful design adequate torsional
stiffness should be available. Weight should be lower than for any
equivalent chassis because with good design a far greater proportion of
the weight of the material can be made to carry loads than is the case
with a separate chassis and body
In general, a unitary construction design should be stiffer than an
equivalent tubular space frame and body for the same weight, or lighter
for similar stiffness. Accessibility depends on the design and this in turn
depends on the design and this in turn depends on the degree of
compromise reached between chassis stiffness and practicability.
Durability depends on operating conditions but should be god, all other
things being equal while accident damage should be localised given
good design- making the cost of repairs fairly low.

Chapter 3 Material:
Despite the recent trend towards monocoques, there still seems to be a
considerable future for tubular steel chassis. For such a purposes a wide
variety of alloy steel tubing is available, ranging from high quality chrome
molybdenum and nickel chrome steel to the ordinary mild steel used by
the majority of specialist sports and racing car constructors.

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